TPMS on cars and pickups...what the deal?

[Chuck Wintle]

my son has bought snow tires ans rims for his pickup. What has to be done to the tpms sensors to make them work properly? thanks.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Is the vehicle equipped with OEM TPMS, or after-market? Are these new transmitters/sensors (on the new rims)? Or did the tire shop pull the sensors off the OEM rims for use on the snow tires?

If OEM and new, he'll need to make sure the new sensors are compatible with the OEM TPMS (receiver/display). If sensors are just transferred to new rims, then any tire shop or dealer service department should be able to check sensors are assigned to the correct tire positions.

If it's aftermarket TPMS, then many have the ability to interface to 6->16 tires. Perhaps just use positions 1-4 for the summer, and 5-8 for winter..??

[Adam Herman]

what kind of car? not a lot to go on here.

[Chuck Wintle]

what kind of car? not a lot to go on here.
its a toyota tundra for which he is buying brand new snow tires to be mounted on brand new rims and probably new sensors. I will get more info from him about the sensors.

[Scott Winners]

Last I looked it was vehicle dependent. My 2015 Toyota only has 4 sensors programmed into the vehicle, it would be a hundred bucks or so, twice annually, to flash the onboard computer back and forth between my 2 sets of rims. And I would have had to shell out close to a grand four for new OE TPMS sensors. So when I put my winter rims and tires on the little light comes on in my dashboard and stays on all winter.

Audi and I think Saab were the first two MFRs with onboard comouter space to monitor two sets of TPMS sensors. I do not know what is current for anybody.

[Adam Herman]

discount tire will usually do it for free, and my dealer will do it for free after we switch ours on our GM stuff. my truck allows you to do it by holding the ok button when on the tpms screen with the car in acc power, and it flashes the blinker of the tire that you are to set, you let air out untill it honks and move on to the next. works great. no tool required.

[Jim Becker]

my son has bought snow tires ans rims for his pickup. What has to be done to the tpms sensors to make them work properly? thanks.

Honestly, it depends on the make/model/year of the vehicle. Some TPMS need to be programmed; some do not.

[Frank Pratt]

Hondas, and maybe others, don't use sensors. The computer monitors how fast each wheel is rotating & can sense when pressure in one drops.

[mike stenson]

Some use the ABS tone rings. The first year of the new miata did that, but it didn't work out so well.. and went back to sensors. The sensors in my GTi needed to be replaced pretty much every tire change (it's not expensive)

If your sons snow tires don't have sensors installed, it won't work.. if they're installed, I've seen them broken during installation... but they certainly need to be programmed anyway

[Mike Cutler]

my son has bought snow tires ans rims for his pickup. What has to be done to the tpms sensors to make them work properly? thanks.

The instructions should be in the owners manual, or drop in on a Tundra forum.

For BMW/MINI, post 2007, it's pretty simple. Take one set of wheels/tires off, put the other on, and reset the system.
The systems sees the new, compatible, sensors and resets the system to those four TPMS sensors. It takes less than a minute.

I'd be pretty annoyed if I had to pay a dealer to "reflash" firmware when I changed wheels and tires. That's kind of ridiculous.

[Lee Schierer]

Hondas, and maybe others, don't use sensors. The computer monitors how fast each wheel is rotating & can sense when pressure in one drops.

Both my 2012 Pilot and 2016 Accord have tpms sensors in the wheels. Both vehicles have reset instructions in the owners manual. Sometimes it pays to read those books that come with the vehicle.

[Frank Pratt]

Both my 2012 Pilot and 2016 Accord have tpms sensors in the wheels. Both vehicles have reset instructions in the owners manual. Sometimes it pays to read those books that come with the vehicle.

My 2013 Accord doesn't have the sensors, just uses the computer. The system must be calibrated after rotating or replacing tires, or changing air pressure. The type of system Honda used depends on model & year.

[Kev Williams]

if you have the money, hire a chauffeur and let them worry about the tires-
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There's also a couple other old fashioned ways to check tire pressure, I use them quite frequently myself-
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(couldn't resist, sorry) ;)

[Jim Becker]

The value of TPMS comes from the early warning it provides if something is going amiss with a tire while you are driving. They may or may not be "exact", but if a tire is detected as having pressure below a certain threshold, the warning is issued. A lot of leaks from picking up metal, etc., are relatively slow and may not be noticed visually. I had that happen multiple times over the years including a few months ago when I apparently picked up THREE pieces of metal in the left rear including a 1/4" lag bolt somewhere along the way between our home and our daughter's apartment.

[roger wiegand]

In my last two cars (2001 BMW, 2009 Mini) I just pressed the reset button, the system recognized the new TPMS and I was good to go. Seems like that's pretty much how it ought to work.

I really wish I had TPMS on the inner duallies on my truck, they are a pain to check. Too cheap to add the aftermarket system for the 2-3000 miles a year I drive that vehicle. The vehicles came with runflat tires (horrible things for driving!) where without the idiot light some members of the family could happily drive all day on a completely flat tire without noticing.

[Ronald Blue]

The early systems were pretty basic but the later versions are both accurate and tell you specifically what each tire has for pressure. You can monitor manually and visually as well and you should just to verify you have correct pressures. Running a tire under inflated is the fastest way to ruin one. I've not had an issue with any of the vehicles equipped with it in the last 10-15 years. Most tire shops can reprogram if they rotate tires. If they need to but I think most vehicles have the ability to relearn the positions without any external programming required these days.

[Jim Becker]

That's true, Ron. Rotation generally isn't a problem. One difference between various implementations is whether or not the TPMS system only stores four specific devices or automatically recognizes them merely by frequency. The Grand Cherokee I previously drove would accept any wheel with either the OEM TPMS or equivalent without any programming...if it was the correct frequency it just worked. (They changed the frequency in 2016 or 2017 slightly making older TPMS not compatible with newer vehicles and vice versa) Some other vehicles can only store four specific TPMS and if you replace one or more, programming is required. I believe our Subarus are like that, but I could be wrong.

[Lee DeRaud]

Both my 2012 Pilot and 2016 Accord have tpms sensors in the wheels.The Pilot might (being pre-2013), but I assure you that the Accord does not. It switched to an indirect system starting in 2013, using the ABS wheel-speed sensors to detect slight changes in tire rolling radius.
(It's described on page 475 of the owner's manual, BTW.)